Taking Chinese in high school

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Again, not a class I would let my kid take. Sooo not important in this economy. Take Latin which is the root of many languages, helps with spelling/English language and will actually be impressive to colleges and employers. U.S. immigration generally favors and is extremely generous regarding Chinese immigrants, so we already have a ton of people FROM the country who live here and speak the language. There is absolutely no advantage to taking it and no-one will be the least bit impressed.

Also, not sure why my comment on this issue keep getting deleted - some people are incredibly sensitive. If you told me you wanted to learn Swahili, I would also tell you similar. I work for a well known international corporation and being fluent in Chinese gets you no brownie points. I'm advising you not to waste your time.

It appears you're focusing on a very narrow aspect. You have no idea those doctors, lawyers, accountants and many other professionals who speak Chinese can make far more than those who don’t. Guess what? The more Chinese immigrants in this country, the more important it is to learn this language.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Again, not a class I would let my kid take. Sooo not important in this economy. Take Latin which is the root of many languages, helps with spelling/English language and will actually be impressive to colleges and employers. U.S. immigration generally favors and is extremely generous regarding Chinese immigrants, so we already have a ton of people FROM the country who live here and speak the language. There is absolutely no advantage to taking it and no-one will be the least bit impressed.

Also, not sure why my comment on this issue keep getting deleted - some people are incredibly sensitive. If you told me you wanted to learn Swahili, I would also tell you similar. I work for a well known international corporation and being fluent in Chinese gets you no brownie points. I'm advising you not to waste your time.

Racist baffoon

+1
And she keeps posting over and over again. Why do you care so much?

[Anonymous]

The Chinese class a the W school is not developed for native speakers but the teachers are not really good teachers and don’t know how to teach the language so it ends up that the only kids that stay are the native speakers. The teacher pushed the kids over the edge and set standards that were unattainable, all non native speakers dropped out. She has a class full of native speakers! Good for her! Mission accomplished. She really is a horrible teacher.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The Chinese class a the W school is not developed for native speakers but the teachers are not really good teachers and don’t know how to teach the language so it ends up that the only kids that stay are the native speakers. The teacher pushed the kids over the edge and set standards that were unattainable, all non native speakers dropped out. She has a class full of native speakers! Good for her! Mission accomplished. She really is a horrible teacher.

Which W school?

[Anonymous]

This kind of thing happens with other languages too. DD's Spanish teacher started speaking fluent Spanish with the native speakers who were in Spanish I with her from day 1 and would include vocab on the tests that other students magically knew from home but were not taught.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How challenging are Chinese 1 and 2 in high school?

My son wants to avoid Spanish 4 and AP because his high school has absolutely terrible Spanish teachers.

He has ADHD and finds languages challenging when his teachers are also struggling.

I’m assuming ending his language studies with Honors Spanish 3 is not a great idea for college applications so I thought taking French or maybe Chinese would be better than no language at all in jr and sr year.

Very tough, much more difficult than Spanish, French or ASL. But it obviously would be valuable if he can adapt to it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The Chinese class a the W school is not developed for native speakers but the teachers are not really good teachers and don’t know how to teach the language so it ends up that the only kids that stay are the native speakers. The teacher pushed the kids over the edge and set standards that were unattainable, all non native speakers dropped out. She has a class full of native speakers! Good for her! Mission accomplished. She really is a horrible teacher.

Which W school?

Sounds like Churchill.

[Anonymous]

Yup, all her AP students are native speakers and they all get 5s and she’s patting herself on the back. Great job!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Most kids taking Chinese at Whitman were native speakers who couldn't read or write it. My DD (not a native speaker, just someone who took it in MS and HS) found that the focus of the class was not so much on the speaking aspects but filling the gaps for the majority of the class. However the teacher was excellent and the only Chinese teacher for all 4 years of HS. The classes were grouped 2 & 3, or 3 & 4 etc because there weren't many students.

My sense was that class was mainly for native speakers and anyone who wasn't already fluent would be at a huge disadvantage.

+1 agree unfortunately.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How challenging are Chinese 1 and 2 in high school?

My son wants to avoid Spanish 4 and AP because his high school has absolutely terrible Spanish teachers.

He has ADHD and finds languages challenging when his teachers are also struggling.

I’m assuming ending his language studies with Honors Spanish 3 is not a great idea for college applications so I thought taking French or maybe Chinese would be better than no language at all in jr and sr year.

Your HS offers Chinese? Why is this only available at the wealthy schools?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How challenging are Chinese 1 and 2 in high school?

My son wants to avoid Spanish 4 and AP because his high school has absolutely terrible Spanish teachers.

He has ADHD and finds languages challenging when his teachers are also struggling.

I’m assuming ending his language studies with Honors Spanish 3 is not a great idea for college applications so I thought taking French or maybe Chinese would be better than no language at all in jr and sr year.

Your HS offers Chinese? Why is this only available at the wealthy schools?

It's available where there's sufficient demand. Our MS in Clarksburg offers it.

[Anonymous]

Families can ask for it to be offered.

Our not wealthy school offers many different languages (not Chinese though) and most of them were added by lobbying from students or staff.

[Anonymous]

Potomac and College Garden Elementary were 2 of the earliest immersion schools. Maybe 20 years ago? Don’t quote me. I don’t know how they were selected but in order for the kids to continue in MS and HS, those feeder schools also offered Chinese. So, it’s Churchill and RM.

[Anonymous]

It’s still Potomac but it moved from college gardens to bayard Rustin